More vigil photos

BLACKSBURG -- Virginia Tech's Day of Remembrance began with a candle in the dark.

Escorted by three members of the university's Corps of Cadets with blue and white dress uniforms, student government representative Jennifer Vaziralli walked out of Burruss Hall with a single lit candle.

The honor guard entered the illuminated university memorial to the 32 students and faculty members slain a year ago today and stopped in front of a 2-foot-high white candle at the center of the memorial ringed by a graceful semicircle of Hokie stones, one for each of the victims of April 16, 2007.

Outside the circle, thousands of Tech students stood in absolute silence. They came from across campus to bear witness to the first moments of what the university community hopes will be a day of honor and healing.

Vaziralli lit the candle at midnight. From behind her, a cadet bugler began the first mournful notes of taps. The bugler's playing was echoed by a second bugler situated behind the crowd, which was 20 to 30 deep and stood quietly behind white ropes in front of the memorial ringed by about a dozen cadets standing at attention.

Off to the side stood Tech student Amy Joseph, 22, a fifth-year senior business major from Powhatan County. She was asked whether she knew any of the 27 students or five faculty members killed in last year's massacre.

She swallowed hard. "Everyone here knows someone," she said. "And every day we can be at this campus and continue to do what we do, we honor the victims."

Joseph said the large turnout for the ceremonial candle lighting is "a perfect example of what it means to be a true Hokie, to support each other in the best and worst times."

Long after the ceremony had concluded, students continued to stand in silence, most of them not moving for 15 minutes, just staring at the memorial and at the lit candle flanked by two cadets who were expected to stand guard through the night. Contact Jim Nolan at (804) 649-6061 or jnolan@timesdispatch.com.